The Name Is Betty 

Tom Lovell painted "The Name Is Betty" in a style reminiscent of film noir, presenting us with a scene thick with unspoken tension. The man, the supposed protagonist, holds a cigarette, a classic symbol of anxiety and inner turmoil since the late 19th century, when nicotine became readily available to Europeans, coinciding with the rise of detective novels and the emergence of the "everyman" character. Think of the countless detectives in literature and cinema who find solace or perhaps a crutch in this very act. We see it echoed in Munch’s "Self-Portrait with Cigarette," where the smoke mirrors the artist’s own psychic fog. The woman's tentative hand on his shoulder, the other man's intense gaze, all contribute to a narrative pregnant with possibilities—a love triangle, betrayal, danger. The motif of smoking, like the Greek concept of catharsis, allows viewers to vicariously experience intense emotion, to see their own anxieties reflected in the character’s smoldering cigarette. It is a cyclical return to familiar themes of human struggle, played out against the backdrop of an ordinary, yet somehow sinister, beachside scene.